1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of data processing. More specifically, the present invention relates to the copying or archiving of web sites or web based applications that include files that are part of a file system as well as non-file system structures.
2. Background Information
With advances in integrated circuit, microprocessor, networking and communication technologies, increasing number of devices, in particular, digital computing devices, are being networked together. As a result of this trend of increased connectivity, increasing number of applications that are network dependent are being deployed. Examples of these network dependent applications include but are not limited to, email, net-based telephony, world wide web (WWW) and various types of web based e-commerce, commonly referred to as web sites or web based applications (hereinafter, simply web based applications). Further, increasing number of software applications that were traditionally licensed or distributed through discrete distribution medium, such as diskettes, CDROMs and the like, are being distributed online or offered as web based applications, through private intranets or public networks like the Internet.
Modern web based applications often include numerous files that are part of a file system as well as a substantial number of non-file system structures. Examples of these non-file system structures include but are not limited data tables of the web based applications, schemas of the data tables, users of the web based applications, and so forth (see e.g. top portion of FIG. 1). Often times, whether it is for the purpose of backing up a web based application, for porting an application (or a portion thereof) or other reasons of the like, it is desirable to be able to efficiently copy/archive the application (or the portion of interest).
Under the prior art, the various parts are typically copied or archived as separate pieces in a database and/or operating system dependent manner. For examples, a file system utility would be employed to copy/archive the files, whereas a database utility would be employed to copy/archive the data tables and their schemas. Accordingly, under the prior art, the copying/archiving process is cumbersome, inefficient, as well as being database and operating system dependent.
Thus, a more efficient approach to copying/archiving a web base application, in particular, an approach that is database and operating system independent, is desired.